A Quote by John Forsythe

Part of my strength as an actor comes from what I've learned all these years: when you play a villain, you try to get the light touches; when you play a hero, you try to get in some of the warts.
I get a lot of people saying to me, 'Oh, you're the actor who plays the nutters,' and I'm not. I'm the guy who plays human beings. I understand why the characters are doing what they're doing. When you play a villain, you don't play a villain: you play a human being doing what he thinks he needs to do to get what he wants.
Here’s the life lesson I’ve learned, Fifi: Some people are born to play the hero, and some are born to play the bad guy. Fighting your destiny only makes life harder than it needs to be. Besides, people remember the villain long after they’ve forgotten the hero.
So much of being an actor is trying to force yourself into these roles and sometimes it's a good fit, and sometimes it's not a good fit... you have to get clear about what it is that you do and not try to be a bunch of other people. Not try to be that guy or try to play that part; find the roles that you do well.
If I play a villain, I try to find his lightness and his good side. And if I play a hero or a good guy, I'll try to find his darkness or his flaws. Because I don't believe in good and evil. I believe in grays.
I love villains. You know, I am a character actor, and any chance to get to play a really outrageous villain. I like to play that.
Obviously, I play a villain in 'Downton Abbey'. As an actor, you want to get a variety of roles, so to be offered the part of Joe, it was perfect.
Villains can often be one note and I would say in that case, it’s not fun to play the villain. It’s fun to play the villain if he a) has dimension and b) the villain gets to do all the things in the movie that in life he would get punished for. In the movie, you’re applauded for them if you do them with panache. And so that’s why it’s more fun to play the villain.
I created my foundation as a result of that and my website, and I try to shed some light on some very topical issues right now. The idea is to try to get people to become obviously more knowledgeable about the issue and try to get corporations and individuals to contribute to these nonprofit organizations.
I try to enjoy it as much as I can every time I play and get the fans off their feet and try to score some goals.
I love to play with the notion of who the protagonist is - who is the audience supposed to root for? I did it in 'Sicario' and feel it was the strength of the script - guiding the audience's allegiance toward the villain because they think he's the hero, until it's revealed that he's the villain.
I've tried different things through the years to get some play on mainstream. I'll try to tailor-make it.
There's a million and one things an actor can do with a villain. He can go for all kinds of quirks and tricks. The hero is much harder to define for an actor. When you play a straight role or a hero, you're kind of stuck, It's much more difficult to give a good guy interesting qualities or to make him unusual.
Sometimes, you have to reject a few, because of the maker, because of the money. But I try to play every role honestly, be it big or small, hero or villain.
I'm the guy who plays human beings. I understand why the characters are doing what they're doing. When you play a villain, you don't play a villain: you play a human being doing what he thinks he needs to do to get what he wants.
I think if you do something effectively whether you're the lover or the comic or the action guy or the villain like I play; movies are very expensive to make. Chances are you'll get asked to play that part again.
My job is that of an actor. As long as I get to act, get some interesting parts to play, get to be a part of interesting stories, I would certainly want to do it.
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